18 July

It's Hunter S. Thompson's birthday

So we are drinking a...

Hunter Cocktail

The father of Gonzo journalism, sports writer, novelist, caner, and scourge of politicians and hypocrites, Hunter S. Thompson, of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas fame, was born on this day in 1937.

A legend in his own lunchtime, Thompson coined the immortal phrase, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." He also observed, "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a ride!'"

In keeping with his wishes, at his funeral his ashes were fired from a cannon at the top of a tower shaped like a fist holding a peyote button, one of his favourite hallucinogens.

Hunter generally enjoyed his bourbon neat, but we think he might also have appreciated the bourbon-based cocktail we are drinking today: a Hunter. One cocktail just wouldn't satisfy such a man, so we are also toasting him with a Hi Falutin, created by Del Pedro of Brooklyn's Tooker Alley.